Will’s Hunter-Gatherer skill failed to activate on the dead ox.

Guess it doesn’t count as a beast? Maybe a magical monster?

Syphon worked, proving Will’s assumption to be correct, and yielded something called “living cloud”, at poor quality. The farmer yielded another living cloud, again being treated the same as the ox by whatever governed that kind of things.

While he waited for the skill to finish up with the farmer, a glint of light caught Will’s eye from inside the field. Searching for the source of the light, Will found that one of the ears of corn on one of the plants was glowing with a soft blue light.

Will knocked the plant down and tore off the glowing ear.

Cloud Corn harvested!

Gained 1 Cloud Corn Ear (Terrible)

Terrible quality? Damn. Guess I need to use Hunter-Gatherer on these things to get better quality?

Will went to a different plant and tried to activate Hunter-Gatherer, but got no response from it. After manually knocking it down, he tore off another ear. This time, however, there was no message screen. And the second ear wouldn’t enter his inventory.

So only some of them can be harvested, and the blue light was an indicator of which one? Let’s see if I can find another to test.

Will munched on the second ear of corn as he searched the field, enjoying a taste that was very close to regular corn, but with a strange spiciness to it, which Will couldn’t place.

Not bad. If I was still human, I think it would work really well in chilli con carne. Maybe I can get Fili to make me some sort of wombat edible version with the ones I can actually take with me? I doubt I’ll get much money for the terrible quality one. Though I guess they don’t do pickled jalapeños here…

A glimpse of blue light caught Will’s eye, and he went to find another corn plant, deep in the field, with a single glowing blue ear.

Hunter-Gatherer activated without any issues on it, and Will soon had an average quality ear of Cloud Corn in his inventory, next to the terrible quality one.

OK, so it’s definitely about using the skill, and the blue light does indicate which plants can be harvested. Not bad. Are there any others here?

An hour later, Will had searched the entire field, and had two more average quality ears sitting in his inventory to show for it.

There was a single cloud road leading out of the clearing, about a quarter circle to the right of the road Will entered from. Before setting off, Will sat down in front of the road to think.

That ox was seriously nasty, and if there are two different enemy types here, there may well be more, which means I can’t be sure about what to expect. So the question here is, what can I do to make the next fight better than the last one?

A glance at his character sheet let Will know that he had a little over three hundred XP waiting.

So that can take three skills from level one to level two, or one skill to level two and one from two to three. Or I can use them on my aspects, which gets me about twice as many levels. Not going to boost Shock Bolt for now, which means mana isn’t an issue here. And the enemies here seem a lot more fragile than anything else I’ve seen so far, which means I probably won’t need more stamina either. So that’s the resource skills and the armor skill out. Harvest skills won’t help in me in battles, so those are also out.

Unstoppable Force might help. Level two gave me a damage boost, and another one of those would really help. That’s two hundred XP though, which doesn’t leave room for much else. Slow is a gamble. Might help, might not. Don’t think I’ll risk it, for now. Rock might help, since it reduces damage. That kick did minor damage, so if I can reduce it by one more level, it brings it down to where I can heal it.

Which brings me to Least Cure. No idea what I’m getting there, but both Force and Bolt became more powerful at level two. Better healing might be my best bet right now.

Alternatively, I can try the Backstab skill. But I feel like I’m already spreading my skills in too many directions, and it’s too situational to do me much good.

Start with healing. If there’s a chance that it lets me heal more, or more serious wounds, than it’s worth it.

Skill shard: Least Cure

Tier: Basic

Type: healer

Cost: 20 mana

Level 2

XP 0/200

Decrease the severity of one wound by one category. Alternatively, heal two health.

Can only be used twice per cycle on a given wound.

Can only be used twice per cycle for a general heal.

Cannot be used on Minor or more severe wounds

Don’t cancel your health insurance yet.

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Level 2: Can be used twice per healing period.

That’s good. Not going to let me deal with Minor wounds yet, but it’ll let me heal faster from anything that it can be used on. Decent change.

Wait. I don’t remember my skills giving the details of what each level does. Also, didn’t it used to say once per day? Can’t be a hundred percent sure, but I think that got changed too. Wonder if it’s related to that message about things being changed?

Seriously, whoever it is that is sending me these messages. Some more clarity would be really appreciated here. And maybe a wiki. I’m really fumbling in the dark here, people!

There was no response, and Will grumbled a bit more before going back to his character sheet.

So, another level to Least Cure or Force will wipe out my XP, with no idea what I’m getting. Rock will only take fifty, but that’s enough to stop me from taking a skill to level three.

Damn it. Got to decide on something, Will! OK. Let’s take Force. It’s expensive, but if I can get some more damage, things will be a lot easier. And I can use one of my healing potions to deal with the minor wound. Let’s see what we get.

Skill shard: Unstoppable Force

Tier: Basic

Type: cavalry

Cost: 8 stamina/attack

Level 3

XP 0/300

When performing a charge attack at an enemy, increase chance of knockdown to 100%.

If the enemy is knocked down, perform an extra trample/claw attack, and continue moving.

Can continue to charge at enemies in a straight line until enemy resists the knockdown.

More like, Unstoppable Farce, amirite?

Level 2: Increase charge damage by one category.

Level 3: Reduce cost by 2 stamina per attack.

Aspect: Slow

Tier: Basic

Level 1

XP 0/50

When performing a charge attack, any attempt by the target to block, evade, or counter is slowed.

Intensity: least.

OK, Unstoppable Force definitely didn’t say what each level does when I last looked at it. Something has definitely changed in how my skills are displayed.

And damn it! Stamina cost reduction is really not what I was hoping for here!

That means that the only immediately useful upgrade was to my healing abilities, which still isn’t enough to deal with minor wounds. Don’t want to use the healing potion yet, since they heal forty health worth of wounds, and I’m only down twenty. Going to be too much of a waste.

So current plan is to move on as I am. Get thirty more XP and upgrade Rock. Hopefully that’ll help some more.

As soon as Will stepped on the cloud road, he couldn’t see the clearing behind him anymore. It looked like the road just kept going behind him forever.

That’s some really wonky physics right there, Will shook his head in confusion. Oh well. Once more unto the breach, dear friends.

Fifteen minutes of walking brought Will to another cloud clearing. Once again, he had to walk into the clearing before he could see anything other than the road stretching ahead of him. The clearing itself, however, was different than the previous one.

It was more or less the same size, but instead of a corn field, the second clearing looked like a forest.

Trees is dark grey trunks rose high above Will’s head; their tops shrouded in storm clouds instead of leaves. Shorter bushes dotted the ground, colored a lighter grey, with white cirrus leaves.

And right in front of Will, a cloudfolk hunter and his cloud hound were stalking a clockwork deer. The hunter could have been the cloud farmer’s twin brother, for all that Will could distinguish of their facial features. This one, however, was wearing light grey armor, and held a bow. Instead of arrows, jagged bolts of lightning filled the quiver at his back.

His hound was as much as cloud beast as the farmer’s ox was, black as a storm cloud, its mouth filled with tiny icicles for teeth.

Their target must have been a crankscout, though it was larger than any Will had seen before. Still, it was made of the familiar brass plates, filled with whirring cogs. Patches of grey, looking like something that might have been meant to look like clouds but made by someone who’d never seen one in his life, spotted the plates at random locations.

As Will watched, the hunter drew a lightning bolt from his quiver and fit it to his bow. Taking careful aim, he fired at the clockwork deer. The lightning flashed towards the crankscout, eerily silent, a scored a direct hit on the beast’s flank.

At the same time, the hound let of a howl. Its voice was like a raging gale, echoing in the clearing as it leapt at the deer, which met its charge with one of its own.

As the two beasts clashed, Will took the opportunity to attack. The wombat charged at the hunter, hoping to take out one opponent while the others were distracted.

Wombats wearing metal armor, however, are far from silent, and the hunter heard him coming from far enough away that even slowed, he still managed to knock and release another lightning bolt. The bolt flew faster than Will could see, and hit him before he even registered the danger.

His muscles locked in agony; Will’s charge ended with an undignified roll. By the time he got back on his feet, the hunter had another bolt knocked, and Will knew he’d never reach the cloudkin before it could attack.

With no other option available, Will tried his Shock Bolt. The two bolts launched, as fast as the hunter’s own lightning. And when bolt met arrow, both were repulsed sideways, missing their targets.

Will’s second shock bolt actually managed to hit the hunter, but as far as he could see, it didn’t actually do anything to its target.

The clash of lightnings did give Will enough time to charge at the hunter again. He was close enough that the hunter didn’t have enough time to draw another lightning arrow, and the wombat smashed into the cloudkin, easily knocking him down. Once again, the enemy seemed lighter and less substantial than a human of the same size would have been.

Will spared a glance at the hound and the deer, who were still locked in mortal combat, before letting loose on his fallen opponent. With nothing to distract him or attack him from behind, it took very little time for Will to finish the cloudkin off.

The battle between the cloud hound and the clockwork deer seemed very even. The deer’s metal horns tore large wounds in the hound’s vulnerable body, but the hound’s icicle teeth were strong enough to puncture the brass plates covering its opponent’s interior mechanisms.

Will, for his part, just stayed back to watch, content to wait for the two to finish up, and then attack the weakened winner. He did find himself wondering why the two were fighting. He hadn’t seen any infighting among monsters before. Then again, there hadn’t been so many different types of enemies in a single space before.

In the end, he put it to either the hunting scenario he’d stumbled upon, or the cloudkins’ stated xenophobia. The precise reason didn’t matter all that much, anyway.

It took a couple of minutes for the battle to end, with the clockwork deer victorious, and Will wasted no time at all before charging at it. He’d had some experience fighting crankscouts, and knew that his claws were less useful against them, and so kept running from the knocked-down deer, before turning around for another charge.

It didn’t take much longer before the crankscout was smashed to bits, and Will stopped to catch his breath.

Only got credit for two kills here. The hounds must have not counted as my kill. Which means I can’t upgrade Rock yet. At least that’s another crankscout down, which means I’m not moving backwards on them.

The lightning bolt from the cloudkin hunter dead another instance of minor damage, confirming to Will that the cloudkin were glass cannon type enemies. He was also at forty total damage, which he couldn’t heal with his skills, which seemed like a good time to use a healing potion.

The taste was even worse than the description promised. Will didn’t even have the words to describe how bad it was. But it got him back to full health before the taste even faded from his mouth, which almost made it worth it. Almost.

The dead cloudkin yielded two more living clouds, both at poor quality, and Will moved on.